Trayce Haliburton And The Pacers Beat The Thunder To Win Game 1 Of The Finals
The Indiana Pacers pulled off another thrilling comeback in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-110 to take a 1-0 lead in the championship round.
Thunder Team
For a Thunder team with some weaknesses, the Pacers were at least having some success when the opportunity arose to switch Pascal Siakam onto the much younger Wallace, and the Indiana forward scored two early buckets because of it.
Thunder
The Thunder had used the same starting five -Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and Hartenstein for each of the 16 games needed to reach the Western Conference playoffs.
Wallace started 43 games in the regular season for the Thunder. He played in 26 playoff games in his first two NBA seasons with Oklahoma City, but Thursday’s series opener against the Indiana Pacers will be his first playoff start.
Oklahome
Oklahoma City even gave rookie Ajay Mitchell some starting minutes, while he was used sparingly in the playoffs
Oklahoma City reached its first Finals since 2012 because its defense was aggressive and turnover-forcing, but playing that style can be costly. The Thunder averages 21 fouls per game, the fourth-most among playoff teams
Pacers
The Pacers, even though they were in a fortunate position given their turnover-proneness in the first half, desperately needed an answer early in the third quarter.
Instead, they committed three more turnovers in the first five minutes while Wallace, who had been a target early in the game because of defensive imbalances, flipped the script on Indiana when he attacked Haliburton.